Chapter 46
It was a short swim across the river to Rotag. And I almost wish I didn’t have to stop there ...
The place had been completely renovated. The mudokon huts I remembered seeing when I was revived there were all gone, and huge tents made from some kind of animal skin had been erected in their place. The unmistakable
whirr-whirr-whirr of slig pants filled the air.
Rotag had become a slig barracks.
That meant that all the mudokons here ... most likely, they were scrubs now. I’d have to go in and save them. That way, at least, they’d be in a nice, safe place.
I swam ashore, far off from any tents or sligs that might take notice of a lone gabbit, and reverted to my mudokon body.
I snuck up the riverside, keeping my eyes open for any signs of mudokons .... and saw some.
I was surprised to see Orion here, considering what I had heard back in the slig camp on my previous quest. From what I remembered, he had been captured and tortured into releasing information about me. But, here he was, with four other scrubs, trying to look busy mending a tent.
I snuck up to them, glanced around and whispered. “All o’ ya!”
The mudokons all turned and growled at me ... but their instinctive politeness got the better of them. They all said “Hi.” But these guys sounded pretty pissed.
I sighed. “Sorry ...” I started, planning to offer my condolences for their lost village.
Apparently, “sorry” was enough. The mudokons grinned and “okay”-ed me.
“Follow me.”
They all said “Okay” again, and I began sneaking back to the riverside, where I had come onto land.
As we went, I explained about the settlement I had started across the river. The mudokons sounded pretty excited to be out of here.
When we got there, I began chanting. A bird portal quickly formed itself, and the mudokons following me cheered and leapt through.
I myself began grinning--this meant I would have another shrykull power!
I waited for it to surge through me ...
And waited ...
Nothing. For some reason, saving five mudokons wasn’t good enough, but saving three was.
I grumbled a bit, and then came to a realization. Those three mudokons I had “saved” in the underground cave were obviously shamans, so saving those three generated enough power to fill me with a shrykull morph, but Orion and four schmucks wasn’t enough. Bah.
Time for a new plan. I’d have to be able to go about the village and scout things out. I couldn’t very well go out there as a pantless slig... I would be noticed. Interns were probably not on the premises ... and my lips wouldn’t be sewn shut, either. Vykker? Unlikely ....
What about a slog? I could wander all over the camp without being questioned or stopped. Slogs are just stupid beasts, after all.
I contacted Aaron from Oblim, one of the maniac fanboys I met in the slig valley. He was more than ready to grant me the slog morph. It wasn’t often he got to talk to me, so he tried to start up a conversation with his hero.
But I told him I was busy. He groaned, but left me alone.
Quickly switching over to the body of Haste the slog, I began scampering into the camp.
I got past two tents when a slig called. “Here, boy!”
Not to look suspicious, I uttered a bark and hustled over to the slig. I followed him for a while, figuring he would lead me across the camp in little time.
After a few minutes, my slog senses detected a pit nearby, and my mudokon mind instantly registered what was about to happen.
The slig herded me into the slog pit, and the smells of a dozen other slogs filled my nose. I was trapped as a slog in a slog pit.
The other slogs soon backed away from me, and with good reason: slogs, I soon noticed, were able to sense ... not the thoughts, but the intentions of other slogs. A quick hunt through my archive of slog instinct told me that different emotions will cause a slog to give off a different scent. And the emotions tied in to my plan--caution, determination, defiance--were all uncommon among slogs.
Great. If they hadn’t smelled me, there may have been a chance for me to have changed back and gotten out of the pit. But now ... I was stuck until I could think of something.